Login and Registration Issues

Why can't I login?

Make sure your username and
password are correct. If they are, contact the forum administrator to make sure
your account hasn't been banned or removed. It is also possible the website owner
has a configuration error on their end, and they would need to fix it.

You may not
have to, it is up to the administrator of the forum as to whether you need to register
in order to post messages. However; registration will give you access to additional
features not available to guest users such as avatar images, private messaging
etc. It only takes a few moments to register.

If you
do not check the Remember me box when you log in, the forum will only keep
you logged in for a preset time. This prevents misuse of your account by anyone
else. To stay logged in, check the box during login. This is not recommended if
you access the forum from a public computer, e.g. internet cafe etc.

Make sure your
username and password are correct. If they are, then the forum requires new registrations
to be activated, either by yourself or by an administrator before you can logon.
You were sent an e-mail, please follow the instructions in the email to activate
your account. If you did not receive an e-mail, you may have provided an incorrect
e-mail address or the e-mail may have been picked up by a spam filer. If you are
sure the e-mail address you provided is correct, try contacting the forum administrator.

Attempt
to locate the e-mail sent to you when you first registered, check your username
and password and try again. It is possible an administrator has deactivated or deleted
your account for some reason. Also, many forums periodically remove users who have
not posted for a long time to reduce the size of the database. If this has happened,
try registering again and being more involved in discussions.

It is
up to the forum administrator to enable avatars and to choose the way in which avatars
can be made available. If you are unable to use avatars, contact a forum administrator
and ask him for his reasons.

Some forums may be
limited to certain users or groups. To view, read, post or perform another action
you may need special permissions. Contact a moderator or the forum administrator to
grant you access.

Smilies, or Emoticons, are small
images which can be used to express a feeling using a short code, e.g. :) denotes
happy, while :( denotes sad. The full list of emoticons can be seen in the posting
form. Try not to overuse smilies, however, as they can quickly render a post unreadable
and a moderator may edit them out or remove the post altogether. The forum administrator
may also have set a limit to the number of smilies you may use within a post.

Yes, images can be shown in
your posts. If the administrator has allowed attachments, you may be able to upload
the image to the forum. Otherwise, you must link to an image stored on a publicly
accessible web server, e.g. http://www.example.com/my-picture.gif. You cannot link
to pictures stored on your own PC (unless it is a publicly accessible webserver)
nor images stored behind authentication mechanisms, e.g. hotmail or yahoo mailboxes,
password protected sites, etc. To display the image use the appropriate button on
the formatting toolbar which adds an [img] tag.

Sticky topics within the
forum appear on top of other topics in a forum. They are often quite important so
you should read them whenever possible. Topics are made sticky by Administrators
and Moderators.

User Levels and Groups

What are Administrators?

Administrators are members
assigned with the highest level of control over the entire forum. These members
can control all facets of forum operation, including setting permissions, banning
users, creating usergroups or moderators, etc., dependent upon the forum founder
and what permissions he or she has given the other administrators. They may also
have full moderator capabilities in all forums.

Moderators are individuals
(or groups of individuals) who look after the forums from day to day. They have
the authority to edit or delete posts and lock, unlock, move, delete topics in the
forum they moderate. Generally, moderators are present to prevent users from going
off-topic or posting abusive or offensive material.

Usergroups are created and
handled by Administrators. Usergroups are groups of users that divide the community
into manageable sections forum administrators can work with. Each user can belong
to several groups and each group can be assigned individual permissions. This provides
an easy way for administrators to change permissions for many users at once, such
as changing moderator permissions or granting users access to a private forum.

Topic Subscriptions and Bookmarks

How do I subscribe to specific forums or topics?

To
subscribe to a specific forum, click the "watch this forum for new topics" link
upon entering the forum. To subscribe to a topic, reply to the topic with the subscribe
checkbox checked or click the "watch this topic for replies" link within the topic
itself.